Kfar Saba, Israel, January 24, 2013. After edging for the second time in about seven days their opponents of Hapoel KFAR-SABA with the score of 3:1 (23-25, 25-20, 25-16, and 25-19) the players of Aurubis HAMBURG – a real rookie in the European Cups – could make it to the 1/4 finals of the 2013 CEV Volleyball Challenge Cup – Women to play there Romania’s C.S.M. BUCURESTI. Aurubis caught a good start going up 12:6 in the first set but eventually lost focus so that the home heroines of Hapoel could storm back and draw level at 20 all. KFAR-SABA even accelerated the pace down the final stretch and could cash the opening set with the score of 25-23. After Hapoel had claimed the lead in the early phases of the second set, Aurubis flipped the charts around and could eventually go for the provisional 1:1 (25-20). The guests from Germany rushed to a terrific 11:2 in set 3 that practically determined the fate of that section quite early and they did need only 20 minutes to wrap it up at 25-16. Everything looked just fine for Aurubis also in set 4 where the group mentored by Helmut von Soosten went up 19:12 but still Hapoel fought their way back with the intention to call for the tie-break. However, Aurubis did not lose composure and by scoring the next few points could pocket that much desired ticket to the 1/4 finals (25-19) after another 23 minutes.
Vendula Merkova top scored in the game for Aurubis with 21 points followed by Ciara Michel and Imke Wedekind who registered 14 apiece. On the other side of the net, Aliona Cherkez paced Hapoel with 19.
“We are evidently happy with our victory and qualification for the 1/4 finals but at the same time we made a way too many mistakes conceding to our opponents also some easy points” says head coach von Soosten. “Our opponents could find the right tactics to compensate for their lack of height at the net and they have showed some good team work as well” adds assistant coach Sebastian Leipold. The players of Aurubis are already on their way back to Hamburg after flying back from Tel Aviv via Zurich.